Successful Weekend

Hi Everyone! We had a great weekend filled with beautiful spring weather, new discoveries and newfound friends.

Saturday

We started the morning at an all-organic market called Alnatura in downtown, Wiesbaden. Rocky found this market last week when he was looking for a Thai restaurant so Saturday we decided to spend a few hours there exploring and translating. It's liked a mini Whole Foods. You can imagine my excitement when I finally stepped foot into this store. I was in heaven and very happy that I finally found this place. It was about the size of a Trader Joes so it wasn't huge and overwhelming. Everything was organic, including the wine and beer...amazing! They had lots of produce, baby things and just about anything organic you could ever want...even Dr. Hauschka skincare and make up. It is definitely a mini German Whole Foods. I'm looking forward to spending more time there so I can translate the foods with my awesome Google Translator app! :)

We then went home for Savannah's afternoon nap. When she woke up we went to Biebrich Palace Park located about 7 minutes away on the Rhine River. We tried to go to this park last weekend but ended up at Neroberg because we had the wrong address and Helga (our GPS) got a little confused. Neroberg was really neat; we later learned that it's a winery that sits at the top of hill with a train that runs in the summer and an incredible view of Wiesbaden. We had lunch at a cafe at the top where there was an historic outdoor theater. There is also a Russian Orthodox Church there that was beautiful! Pictures from this are in the photos from this weekend. 

Back to this weekend, Biebrich Palace is stunning. I'm glad we went on Saturday because the weather was a lot warmer than last weekend. The Palace sits right on the Rhine River and behind it is a beautiful park where you can walk, play with your dog and just relax. It was really nice to put down a blanket and enjoy the beautiful spring day. Savannah was occupied with exploring the grass and Lilly's toy soccer ball. Lilly met lots of friends and got much needed exercise. We walked around the whole park, it was lovely! There was an old castle in the middle of the park next to a pond. It was so cool to imagine that many years ago people used to live in this castle. We got to get really up close to the castle too.

After the park we took a seat at the cafe in Biebrich Palace. The Palace was stunning! Beautiful for a wedding or any special event. The cafe was in front and we sat outside at the tables and people watched and enjoyed tea and beer (tea for me, beer for the hubby).

Sunday

We started the day with a nice walk outside across from our hotel through fields. Later we went to Rocky's co-workers Sunday Dinner Club. Everyone was very nice and gave us lots of advice and tips. In fact I came home and immediately wrote everything down in fear I would forget! :) Savannah had a ball playing with the other children. I'm so excited we met new friends and I have other mommies to play with!!!

Now it's Monday and it's rainy but I'm remembering the sunny weekend and looking forward to this week. Hopefully our household goods arrive and we came move. If not, Paris awaits us for the weekend!

Until next time, enjoy the pictures and videos!

Elizabeth

XO

Photos from the last two weekends.

Daddy makes me laugh.

Exploring...

One Month

Well after one month of living here I'm ready to go home, JUST KIDDING!!! :) However, I am ready to move into our house. We (I should say Rocky) have the lease fully negotiated with our new landlord and now the paperwork is in the approval process at Rocky's company. Our new landlord has been fantastic. He has been very understanding with everything. Renting a home in Germany is very different than renting a home in the U.S. For example, when you move out of a home here, you are required to pay a renovation fee which can run over $10,000! And leases here are generally a lot longer than American leases. Most landlords will not rent to anyone for less than a 3 year lease. Sometimes not even 3 years, they want like 5-10 year leases. Also, there are no closets in any rooms. You have to purchase closets from Ikea. We've also heard German washers and dryers take an extremely long time to work. Rocky's co-works recommend we take our laundry to the base on the weekend because we can do six loads at once! But since I'm home all day I can monitor the laundry so it shouldn't be a problem...hopefully. On the up side, homes here are very well kept and maintained. They are just beautiful from the inside out!

Savannah is doing really well. She is super fast these days and is very curious about everything. She does this little thing, when she see something or someone interesting she tilts her head and pokes her head out as if she is saying, "Really, tell me more!" It's adorable. She is pulling herself up and making her way around the furniture, and she'll even stand without holding onto anything for about 15 seconds at a time!

We will hopefully be moving into our home in the next two weeks. We are waiting for our household goods which are supposed to be here Monday. Once they get here, they have to be cleared through customs so we might not move in until April 1st. Total bummer! If this is the case....we are thinking about spending my 30th birthday in Paris. Which would be incredible! The only thing holding us back is our little Lilly. We have to make sure she is in good hands and since I'm very protective of sweet Lilly, I want to be 100% sure I trust the person watching her. Rocky has a co-worker who loves dogs and has three so we are checking with him. If not we'll postpone Paris. In the future we are hoping our landlord will be kind and watch her. He has a 15 year old son that wants a dog very badly so we're hoping Lilly will turn up her charm and they will extend an offer when we get to know them better.

Our next trip will be to Prague to visit the Easter Markets. We've heard they are a lot of fun!

Rocky's job is starting to pick up and has been put on several projects. I'm so proud of him and everything he has accomplished to bring us here. He is enjoying everything so far and his company has been very understanding and supportive in getting us settled as soon as possible. We just got invited to join their Sunday dinner club. This Sunday is our first one, I'm excited to meet all the wives and children.

I have a few videos and pics from last weekend's excursions that I'll post this weekend!
XO
Elizabeth

Guten Morgen

This morning we are enjoying coffee and feeding Savannah little pieces of the grapes we are eating. She also had a little banana and a tiny bite of my oatmeal. Today we are going to Biebrich Palace Park located on the beautiful Rhine River (about 15 minutes away). You can read more about this Park on the Stars and Stripes website.




Thursday we decided to rent the house with a gorgeous view of the Taunus Mountains in Kelkheim!! The landlord is very nice, he is originally from Canada so he speaks perfect English. Our household goods are still on their way to Germany and are expected to arrive on March 11th. We will probably move in our home the weekend of March 18th also known as my 30th BIRTHDAY! :) We had planned on going to Paris this weekend but now that trip is postponed a few weekends until we are settled.

Now let me tell you about our house! It's a detached double house with about 2,000 square feet and three levels. There are 2.5 baths, one located on each level (one full bath upstairs and the other in the basement, perfect for when all of you visit)! There are three good sized bedrooms upstairs and each has an unbelievable view of the town. The air is so fresh and clean it's amazing! The house doesn't even have an AC unit because it doesn't get hot enough in the summer. Our landlord lives in the other half of the double house and he said he keeps the windows open all the time, incredible! There is an abundance of natural light that flows in all the windows from every direction. The kitchen is bigger than we had originally thought with lots of storage cabinets and a good sized fridge. Most refrigerators in Germany are very small so to find a home with a good sized fridge is like a diamond in the ruff. The living room and dinning room open to each other as you'll see in the pictures. The basement has three rooms. One room is very large with another small room attached. This will be the play area/man cave/guest room. The other two rooms down there are for storage. The stairs are enclosed which is great because every house we saw the back of the steps were open, total baby hazard! The house has a deck with an enclosed backyard. The deck is being replaced this month so that will be brand new.

When we move in we need to supply light fixtures, a washer/dryer and closets. This is very normal in Germany. You are actually supposed to bring your own kitchen but this house comes with a kitchen. Yesterday we went to Ikea (pronounced "eye-k-a" here in Germany) and looked at closets and light fixtures.

The town is the perfect size. Most of the streets are cobblestone like many of the streets and the buildings are very old with lots of character. There is a beautiful park with a play ground within walking distance with a soccer field and I think a big farm...still investigating. There is also a bakery at the bottom of the hill of our house. Frank (landlord) said they deliver and he always gets fresh buns delivered on Saturday morning! Not many bakeries still deliver, but lucky for us we live right next to one that does! hahaha I made a rule...this delivery bun service will be a once and a while special treat type of thing for us! Without this rule, we'd be in trouble. :) About 3 miles up the road from our town there is another small town with lots of really cute shops and restaurants.

Enjoy your Sunday, aka "day of rest" here. Nearly everything but gas stations shut down, so it is truly a day of rest!

Xo
Elizabeth

P.s. Friday I passed my drivers test! Officially legal to drive, very exciting!!!